Far-right AfD’s win on asylum vote rocks German parliament

It’s hard to overstate the importance of the firewall against the far-right in German political culture. Remembrance of the Holocaust plays a fundamental role in modern Germany.

Before Wednesday’s vote, the Bundestag held its yearly commemoration for the victims of the Nazis, during which 88-year-old Holocaust survivor Roman Schwarzmann addressed parliament.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also delivered a speech to MPs, calling for the Nazis’ crimes never to be forgotten. There should be no “line drawn” ending our historical responsibility as Germans, he said.

This directly contradicts the policy of the AfD, which has criticised German memory culture and argued for a broader view of the country’s history.

That’s partly why so many were shocked when Friedrich Merz said last week that he didn’t care if the AfD supported his parliamentary motions or not.

This contradicts not only his previous statements, but also the official line of his party, which bans the conservatives from relying on the far-right in parliamentary votes.

Sections of the AfD have been classed as right-wing extremists by domestic intelligence, but the party is is currently polling second, although Merz has ruled out any kind of coalition with them.

This week, latest polls showed that support for the conservative CDU had slipped a couple of percentage points to 28%, while the AfD increased slightly to 20%.

AfD leader Alice Weidel has said the firewall amounts to an “anti-democratic cartel agreement” and has predicted it will crumble over the coming years.

Opening the door to leaning on support from the far-right is a gamble for Merz, who believes that his increasingly radical stance on migration will win back right-wingers who are tempted to vote for the AfD.

But in so doing, he could risk losing support from the centre.

With these latest parliamentary motions, Merz has definitively said goodbye to the era of his more centrist conservative predecessor Angela Merkel, who a decade ago famously said “wir schaffen das” or “we can do it” when Germany was faced with large numbers of migrants and refugees.

These motions are symbolic, signalling what the conservatives would like to do in power. But they are also a concrete signal to voters about who Merz appears prepared to accept support from.

Critics say he has broken his word on the firewall. No wonder the AfD cheered in parliament when the result was announced.